Societal Model Research Articles

Make Ascertainability (Overbreadth) Clear Again

Effective legal systems glue together cohesive societies. Justice Harlan commanded that the implementation of a clear set of rules enables individuals “to settle their differences in an orderly predictable manner.” Without such a system, he added, “social organization and cohesion are virtually impossible...” The fundamental element of effective legal systems are the uniform application of its rules. Rules become unclear without consistency. In the early twentieth century, the American Bar Association displayed its appreciation of this societal model when it declared the need for a uniform set of procedural rules in the federal courts. The culmination of its effort, the enactment of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (“FRCP”), was consequently met with great approval. Today, Rule 23 of the FRCP presents a powerful tool: the class-action. The class-action device is a method of representative litigation that enables people to join together to adjudicate their claims. In turn, the consolidation of similar claims promotes efficiency, by preserving scarce judicial resources, and fairness, by ensuring consistent legal determinations. Indeed, fair and efficient outcomes will not result where members of proposed classes lack common interests. Likewise, proposed classes necessitate objective definitions for parties to discern who will be bound by potential judgements. Therefore, the uniform application of Rule 23(b)(3)’s predominance requirement, the former, and its implicit ascertainability requirement, the latter, help ensure Rule 23(b)(3)’s effectiveness. Ironically, courts have not uniformly utilized these standards when analyzing overbreadth — a major roadblock to class certification. Overbroad class definitions contain too many individuals with no legitimate claim for liability. While courts consistently deny certification for this manifestation, some do so through ascertainability analysis, while others do so under the predominance requirement. The lack of uniformity creates the prospect of unpredictability for litigants, irrespective of whether classes are certified. Claims under Rule 23 significantly impact our legal system and our economy. Inconsistent application of the rule’s requirements risks the potential for conflation of its standards, unnecessary litigation costs, and litigant forum-shopping. Therefore, courts must recognize this issue to promote analytic clarity.

Meeting local community needs: The cases of iron ore mining in Sweden and South Africa

This study compares contrasting models of how community concerns are addressed in two mining districts: in Sweden, a welfare state setting where social development concerns are the responsibility of the state, and South Africa, a developing country, where expectations are oriented towards companies taking on significant portions of such responsibilities. Both countries have in place strict environmental regulations for mining, and residents in both districts perceive environmental impacts as a company responsibility. However, whereas there is significant tolerance for environmental disturbances in Sweden, such sentiment is missing in South Africa. When it comes to community welfare, companies operating in South Africa feel obliged to undertake voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)-related efforts, yet are often met with criticism and distrust, whereas in Sweden, companies tend to be supported, despite not being directly involved in providing any significant welfare-related services. We argue that calls for mining companies to take on a greater responsibility for local communities can be problematic and must be evaluated with care: in welfare states, doing so may be at odds with existing and functioning societal models, whereas in other settings it may lead to unclear responsibilities for societal outcomes.

The Mobile Theatre Movement in India: a Success Story in Assam

Taking mobile theatre in Assam as an example, Ina Ross questions in this article how professional, contemporary theatre can be successful in India, where it is considered to be a niche culture and economically precarious. She examines what would be needed for contemporary theatre in India to appeal to all segments of the population and asks how the theatre can compete with its omnipresent big brother, the cinema. A brief historical introduction to the mobile theatre movement is followed by an analysis of recent performances, complemented by interviews conducted with the major players in Assam's mobile theatre movement. The article shows that the success of mobile theatre is not to be found on the stage alone: it is also a social and societal model that is lived and experienced with the audience, and this ultimately is the key to its success. Ina Ross is a cultural manager with a focus on the performing arts. She has held the position of Associate Professor at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Art in Berlin, and since 2015 has been teaching arts management at the National School of Drama (NSD) in Delhi. She is the author of Wie überlebe ich als Künstler? (How to Survive as an Artist, 2013).

Women in Europe and in the world: The state of the Union 2016

Building on the definition of oppression developed by the philosopher Iris Young, the article argues that women in Europe are an oppressed group. Relying on recent statistics, it points out that a high percentage of women are still subject to gender violence; economically exploited and marginalized; powerless with regard to governance and participation in the public sphere, as well as victims of androcentrism—a pattern of cultural evaluation which seriously undermines women’s potential for development. The article then shows how this state of affairs has worsened over the last years, under the effects of the financial and economic crisis, and the austerity policies with which the European states have responded. Finally, it singles out two possible future scenarios. If the current neo-liberal trends persist, we can expect a move towards societies more polarized in terms of class and ethnicity; low fertility rates; and an increasing poverty of those most in need of care and in charge of care provision. The crisis could instead be perceived as an opportunity to diverge from this prevailing neo-liberal model, calling for a new, inclusive, societal model of development—a new humanism which puts the person, in her whole complexity and in her very real care dependent nature, at the very core of the political and economic project.

The spirit of Vatican II: Western European progressive Catholicism in the long sixties

Vatican II profoundly changed the outlook and the message of the Catholic Church. After decades, if not centuries, in which Catholic public opinion appeared to be primarily oriented towards the distant past and bygone societal models, suddenly the Catholic Church embraced the world as it was, and it joined in the struggle to create a radiant future. The Sixties were a time of great socio-cultural and political ferment in Europe as a whole. Especially the second half of the 1960s and the first half of the 1970s witnessed an astounding range of 'new' and 'old' social movements reaching for the sky. Catholic activists provided fuel to the fire in more ways than one. Catholics had embarked on the quest for new horizons for some years prior to the sudden growth of secular activism in and around the magic year of 1968. When secular radicals joined up with Catholic activists, a seemingly unstoppable dynamic was unleashed. This book covers five crucial contributions by Catholic communities to the burgeoning atmosphere of those turbulent years: a) the theological innovations of Vatican II, which made such an unprecedented engagement of Catholics possible in the first place, but also post-conciliar theological developments; b) the resurgence of the worker priest experiment, and the first-ever creation of autonomous organisations of radical parish priests; c) the simultaneous creation of grassroots organisations - base communities - by (mostly) lay activists across the continent; d) the crucial roles of Catholic students in the multiform student movements shaping Europe in these years; e) the indispensable contributions of Catholic workers who helped shape - and often initiated - the wave of militant contestations shaking up labour relations after 1968. (Publisher's abstract)

Adolescent Peer Relations and Socioemotional Development in Latin America: Translating International Theory into Local Research.

Peer relations constitute a main developmental context for adolescents. Peers offer an instance for identity definition and set the norms of acceptable and valued characteristics, behaviors, and attitudes, representing a societal model that allows and restrains avenues for adolescents' socioemotional development. The present article departs from these considerations to review research on adolescents' peer relations in Latin America from a socioemotional perspective. First, approaches to adolescence are discussed, with a main focus on attachment and identity theories, based on a bioecological framework. Then, a review of research in Latin America on friendships, school climate, and intergroup relations is presented. The discussion addresses the tension between theories and evidence generated in developed societies and highlights the particularities of Latin American youth, stressing the need for collecting local data.

Heading towards a better world. Part 2: the current world situation and the responsibility of universities

The independence of academic teachers gives them the liberty to freely and honestly express their views in the hope of influencing the long-term societal development. Scientific explorations of the foundations of nature are important for gaining further knowledge to address urgent issues of our common future. But, in addition, academics are obliged to develop wisdom for comprehending the transdisciplinary and transcultural connections that are the clues for solving major pending problems. An overarching view may help us to conceive innovative societal models and to find possible avenues that will lead toward long-term prosperity and human dignity for all citizens on our globe, also in a distant future.

Russia's international aid donorship: from diplomatic status symbol to “frontline aid”?

Russia is generally considered to be a so-called ‘emerging aid donor’ since Moscow officially announced, at the G8 summit in Saint Petersburg in 2006, that it wanted to become a donor economy again after it had been a recipient economy for one and a half decades. More recently, Russia’s reception of refugees from south-eastern Ukraine and the Russian humanitarian convoys to resistance-held areas there added new controversy about the nature of its aid. Russia also manifested itself as an aid actor with its proposal to the International Red Cross, to have humanitarian truces in Yemen. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the proportions, characteristics and motives of Russia’s current official and officious policies of international development and humanitarian aid, and compare these with what some authors have identified as the identity dilemma in international relations which Russia has struggled with over the last 15 years, one between becoming a (regional) power again despite a number of lingering internal social-economic challenges, integrating into the G8 or leading among emergent economies, and promoting development and thus the export of a societal model or rather privilege the redistribution of wealth.

Change in Sustainable Economies

Two important problems in models for a sustainable economy are (1) how to connect environmental models with societal models and (2) how to model the impact of societal changes upon an environment.For the first challenge, the Leontief economic model has been transformed from a vector to a tensor equation, as a model for integrating regional descriptions of an economy and its local environment. However, this is a static model of a steady-state (stasis) economy during a given period; and here we address the second challenge of modeling the impact of societal change upon an economy and its environment.We apply the modeling of societal change in the historical case of Australia’s Mining Rent Tax of 2012-2014.

Le territoire créateur de ressources : une illustration autour du cas d’Usinette

L’objectif de cet article est d’illustrer la façon dont des acteurs, a priori peu visibles dans les sphères classiques de l’intervention territoriale, agissent afin de favoriser la diffusion d’un modèle sociétal se voulant à contre-courant du modèle structurant le régime conventionnel dominant (dans le sens de l’économie des conventions), tout en étant en phase avec les aspirations d’une partie grandissante de la population. Le projet Usinette, produit de la réflexion de « hackers » familiers de l’espace créatif des « Fab Labs », vise à faire circuler non seulement des pratiques nouvelles en termes de production d’objets physiques, mais également de nouveaux modes de coordination. L’analyse d’Usinette montre que ce projet contribue à la circulation d’une intention de régime conventionnel alternatif, à travers des initiatives montées avec des acteurs localement inscrits, mais également inscrits dans des réseaux actifs de « hackers ». Nous entendons montrer que ce mode d’action, associant proximité physique et institutionnelle, est un moyen intéressant de circulation des idées et des pratiques.

KÜRESELLEŞEN DÜNYADA AVRUPA MODELİ'NİN SINIRLARI VE SORUNLARI:REFAH DEVLETİ NEREYE?

The author analyzes the European societal model and searches an answer to the question , where this model is heading to and in what way it is going to change. The political and social integration project of the European Union (EU) rests on a specific societal model. This model has been shaped by historical and social developments over centuries. It is the end-product of common historical experiences and societal dynamics such as class struggle. The model signifies a liberal and social synthesis that reached its zenith in the latter part of the 20th century in the form of the 'Welfare State'. The welfare state is the building stone behind the conciliation of capitalism with democracy and capital with labor. The European societal model rests on political democracy, capitalist economy and welfare state . The state is an agent of social management whereby it is responsible, -together with the market- for the welfare of its citizens and the society at large . The idea of citizenihip incorporates not only fundamental rights and freedoms but also socio-economic rights and freedoms. It is possible to discern within this general framework different welfare state models such as the liberal, corporatist and social democratic types. Changes in the international environment after the 1980's such as globalization and increased competition among states, as well as the ascendance of the neo-liberal perspective brought pressure on the welfare state. High levels of budgetary expenditure necessitated by the welfare state, the remaining problems that it was unable to solve, its side-effects, its influence on the expectations of the populace were among the criticisms addressed to welfare state practises. Challenges originating from changing international conditions, the shortcomings of the model as well as the decrease in the level of popular support threatens the European societal model. Theorists and practicioners produce solutions to the impasse that are neither liberal nor statist. The current enlargement process of the EU brings the European model into close contact with not so similar societal models. EU member states struggle to adapt to changing conditions by introducing incremental changes to their models. The EU needs a solution that will focus on political integration rather than social integration within the EU which seems more difficult than political integration. In this sense a Union of European States is a probable solution .

Gender in Russian Rodnoverie

Conservative and essentialist gender roles prevail in Rodnoverie literature, in which men are regularly presented as strong warriors and women as tender mothers and homemakers. Patriarchy is presented not only as a societal model of the pre-Christian Russian society but also as an ideal model for contemporary Russia and Pagan communities. Rodnoverie rituals also feature a conservative understanding of gender, and this tendency seems to be reified by the processes of unification and elaboration of ritual practices in the movement. Nevertheless, one may also detect features that break the simplistic idea of Rodnoverie gender roles as patriarchal and conservative. An integral element in Rodnoverie’s identity vis-à-vis Christianity is the criticism of the demonization and subjugation of women by the latter. In Rodnoverie ritual practices, women often creatively fashion their gender identities. The bipolar division into femininity and masculinity also characterized such Western Pagan religions as Wicca for a long time, and a more inclusive and open understanding of gender was the result of a conscious labor of widening the understanding of, for example fertility. Similarly, I suggest that Rodnoverie rhetoric about gender should be assessed in its social context. Admittedly, in comparison to many forms of Western Paganism, Rodnoverie seems extremely conservative in this matter. However, in Russian society, much of the essentialism simply reflects the general attitudes and underlying assumptions. Therefore, in a Russian context views that could be regarded as conservative in some Western discussions may in fact be moderate or even liberal in the context of Russian religiosity.

The risks of nation branding as crisis response: A case study of how the Danish government turned the Cartoon Crisis into a struggle with Globalization

In this article, we investigate the limitations of organization-centric models for crisis communication in handling place crises. Two distinct types of place crisis are identified as what we respectively term the ‘sudden’ and the ‘ongoing’ type. We point out that place branding traditionally has been used to handle the latter type. We then demonstrate how the inspiration from corporate communication in place branding has led to a fixation on reputation, which becomes salient when place branding is used as crisis communication in sudden crisis. Here the corporate inspiration tends to rule out alternative strategies for handling crises based on ‘societal models’. Through a case study of Denmark’s so-called Cartoon Crisis we demonstrate how crisis communication falls short of coping aptly with the complexity of the crisis due to the branding-inspired translation from ‘sudden’ to ‘ongoing’ crisis. We thus argue that the Danish government’s solution in nation branding aimed at the reputational implications failed to address the immediate consequences of the crisis vis-a-vis national security and exports. And that this solution in turn created the reputation as additional risk. We conclude that a broader societal perspective on crises therefore is needed in the emerging academic literature on place crisis communication.

Beyond GDP: Conceptual Grounds of Quantification. The Case of the Index of Economic Well-Being (IEWB)

Today, though the need for new indicators of progress is broadly recognized, no consensus has arisen on a successor to gross domestic product (GDP). Various quantification options are debated. While some intend to improve current indicators by completing or adjusting them to new constraints, others think that new indicators of progress are liable, if well-designed, to catalyse a transition toward a new societal model, less reliant on growth. Up to now, the normative stakes related to quantification options, though crucial for “what we measure affects what we do”, are scattered among the debates and do not appear clearly to actors. Our paper aims therefore to offer a systematic understanding of the normative impacts of generic quantification choices. To that end, we analyse the index of economic well-being (IEWB). For each dimension of this composite indicator, the analysis—which aims to be easily transposed to other indicators—sheds light on the variety of normative implications resulting from its conceptual and methodological apparatus. This concomitantly leads us to question in depth the relevance of some theoretical hypotheses underlying the IEWB to coherently account for economic, social and ecological issues. The paper’s conclusion suggests that alternative conceptual frameworks, such as ecological economics and the capability approach, are liable to carry more coherent indicators of progress.

Fast fashion and the future

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to suggest that all of the systems, education, economic and social, are caught in an ever-increasing pace, tied in large part to a set of beliefs, largely economic, that resemble a religion and for which there appears to not be a rational option to escape. Design/methodology/approach – A study of systems. Findings – It is argued that we are at a tipping point where there are too many holes in the intellectual dike, that a shift in many dimensions may not be preventable. Practical implications – While “techno-futurists” are promoting this increasing evolution pace towards a transformational singularity, there appears to be no serious consideration that humanity may get its “wish” as did King Midas. Social implications – There is a serious question as to whether there can be, and should be, alternatives not cast into the frame of the Neo-Luddites. Originality/value – This is a contrarian view of the current effort to promote the educational focus on STEM, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, almost as a pre-cursor to being able to participate in a technology-driven societal model of the future.

Governing the future: science, policy and public participation in the construction of the long term in the Netherlands and Sweden

This paper is a historical study of two institutions devoted to the problem of the future – the Dutch WRR (the Scientific Council for Government) and the Swedish Secretariat for Futures Studies – both created in 1972. While there is a growing interest in the social sciences for prediction, future imaginaries and the governance of risk, few studies have examined historically the integration of the category of the ‘future’ or the ‘long term’ in political systems in the postwar years, a period in which this category took on specific meaning and importance. We suggest that governing the long-term posed fundamental problems to particular societal models of expertise, decision-making and public participation. We argue that the scientific and political claim to govern the future was fundamentally contested, and that social struggle around the role and content of predictive expertise determined how the long term was incorporated into different systems of knowledge production and policy-making.

Cooperatives As Governance Mechanisms

This article seeks to reestablish academic interest in cooperative law. It is driven by the motive to narrow the gap between the importance of cooperatives in practice and their relatively benign place in legal research. In order to kick-start a comparative and interdisciplinary debate on the subject, some fundamental points are made that are indispensible for any discussion. First and foremost, the notion of the cooperative is explained in order to differentiate it from other phenomena. The contribution criticizes any understanding that is linked to a peculiar societal model. In particular, it is shown that cooperatives can neither be claimed as fiefdoms by the socialist or anti-globalisation movements nor should be considered as a panacea for the shortcomings of the capitalist world. Instead, it suggests to adopt an economic viewpoint and to consider the cooperative as a particular type of governance mechanism that is appropriate in some instances because it is apt to solve specific problems. The article discusses what these problems are and how this governance mechanism is used to solve them. Starting on the basis of the Rochdale Principles, some important features of cooperative governance are highlighted. Finally, a research agenda is set out. It is hoped that academics as well as practitioners will be inspired by this contribution to endeavor their own studies on cooperatives.

Cross-Disciplinary Economic Theory

A knowledge economy still produces goods and services, although by the important use of knowledge. Therefore, economic models are relevant to understanding how a knowledge economy should properly work, particularly the financial system in a knowledge economy. When finance fails, all knowledge stops. Cross-disciplinary approaches to societal models of a knowledge economy are necessary and useful, because societies are more complex than can be seen by any single social science discipline. This was dramatically demonstrated in the first decade of the twenty-first century by the major failure of mainstream economic theory, as a basis for financial regulation. The surprising thing was that the economic discipline as a whole did not take this empirical opportunity to rethink economic theory, to build together a new and valid theory. Instead, the schools of economics continued to argue with one another. We take this historical case of scholastic conflict to reexamine economic theory, but within a cross-disciplinary framework. We use the modeling that had been accomplished in the two conflicting economic schools—exogenous and endogenous schools. Each modeled parts of an economic system, production subsystem (exogenous school) and financial subsystem (endogenous school). But neither succeeded in modeling the whole of an economic system. Within a larger cross-disciplinary framework of societal dynamics theory, we show how to assemble these partial models into a more complete economic model.

Feeding Truffles to Porcupines

Traditionally, the West has promoted the commendable cause of human rights because it was here that its contours were eloquently outlined by the champions of early liberalism. We uphold the western societal model because it results from our cumulative efforts to introduce into practice the noble standards conceptualised by John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Thomas Paine, and other influential contractualists. Naturally, we are eager to share its fruits with the world. However, in the process of attempting to export western values we tend to disregard completely the fact that they took centuries to solidify into their present form. Furthermore, we fail to take into account the political and cultural climates which facilitated the advent of democracy and human rights. Further still, although our eagerness to market the products of our civilisation borders on intrusive advertising, we are yet to appreciate completely the qualities they entail. In this paper I shall argue that, in spite of being established theoretical concepts, from a practical perspective, democracy and human rights are novelties. I shall argue that the sociocultural evolutionary process cannot be expedited; that historically, piecemeal reform has taken pragmatic precedence over political adventurism. I shall argue that insofar as the West continues to recklessly impose its cultural ethos upon exotic civilisations, the ideals it espouses will become utterly devoid of authenticity.

Patient and Societal Value Functions for the Testing Morbidities Index

We developed preference-based and summated scale scoring for the Testing Morbidities Index (TMI) classification, which addresses short-term effects on quality of life from diagnostic testing before, during, and after testing procedures. The two TMI preference functions use multiattribute value techniques; one is patient-based and the other has a societal perspective, informed by 206 breast biopsy patients and 466 (societal) subjects. Because of a lack of standard short-term methods for this application, we used the visual analog scale (VAS). Waiting tradeoff (WTO) tolls provided an additional option for linear transformation of the TMI. We randomized participants to 1 of 3 surveys: The first derived weights for generic testing morbidity attributes and levels of severity with the VAS; a second developed VAS values and WTO tolls for linear transformation of the TMI to a "dead-healthy" scale; the third addressed initial validation in a specific test (breast biopsy). The initial validation included 188 patients and 425 community subjects. Direct VAS and WTO values were compared with the TMI. Alternative TMI scoring as a nonpreference summated scale was included, given evidence of construct and content validity. The patient model can use an additive function, whereas the societal model is multiplicative. Direct VAS and the VAS-scaled TMI were correlated across modeling groups (r = 0.45-0.62). Agreement was comparable to the value function validation of the Health Utilities Index 2. Mean absolute difference (MAD) calculations showed a range of 0.07-0.10 in patients and 0.11-0.17 in subjects. MAD for direct WTO tolls compared with the WTO-scaled TMI varied closely around 1 quality-adjusted life day. The TMI shows initial promise in measuring short-term testing-related health states.